Meet the Miami Herald and el Nuevo Herald’s new member of the elections team

Dear readers,

I’m the new Report for America Corps member at the Miami Herald and el Nuevo Herald. Over the coming year, I will be reporting on the elections through the Hispanic prism. I’m thrilled to be covering this beat.

I am from Puerto Rico, where politics are treated like a national sport. On election day, decreed a public holiday by law, people take off work and gather at friends and relatives’ households, debating candidates as polling results roll out on the television. In Puerto Rico, voting is a serious and honored civic duty. The island has historically had a voter turnout higher than the national average.

But as zealous as Puerto Ricans can be about local elections, the island’s residents cannot vote for the president of the United States or elect members of Congress to represent them on Capitol Hill. We have a delegate in the House of Representatives, but with no power to vote on proposed legislation.

Witnessing this dichotomy has opened my eyes to the complexities of the Latino vote in the United States. I hope to bring the passion for politics that surrounded me growing up to my coverage, and to be as nuanced as possible as I examine how Florida’s many Hispanic communities relate to the electoral processes.

What exactly is the Hispanic prism? It’s not just one monolithic point of view, but the many different perspectives, identities, and ideologies that exist within Florida’s Latino communities. They are a diverse bunch with roots that extend to many different places: Cuba, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Colombia, Mexico, Argentina, Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica and my own native land, Puerto Rico.

And Florida’s Latinos are as electorally powerful as they are diverse. In total, they make up just over a quarter of the population, and one in five of Florida’s eligible voters is Hispanic. Politicians and political organizers across both sides of the aisle know that appealing to this base is crucial. They organize caravans, host voter registration drives, air Spanish-language ads on the radio, express their views on Latin America politics, and speak at megachurches.

With the coronavirus pandemic, economic upheaval, and demonstrations now sweeping the nation, this election season promises to be unprecedented. Over the next year, I am determined to dig deep into why and how Latino communities vote. I hope to examine what unites — and divides — this segment of the voting population.

These are some of the questions I hope to answer through my reporting: How will the pandemic affect voter access in Latino communities in Florida? How will local and national candidates shift gears to campaign in hard-to-reach Hispanic communities when in-person efforts have been severely restricted by COVID-19? How many Latinos are affected by the passing of Amendment 4? How are Latinos organizing to make sure their vote counts? How has the arrival of new immigrants from Latin America over the last decade changed political strategy? What are the generational and political differences between younger and older Latinos? How do politicians and public officials balance the sometimes conflicting interests of their Latino voters?

I’ve spent my first two weeks on the job chatting with political organizers, press secretaries, community leaders, campaign staffers, and concerned citizens about Florida politics. I would love to speak with you, too. I’m always available for a virtual cafecito to talk about the issues you care about, big and small. You can find me on Twitter @syraob or over email at sortizblanes@elnuevoherald.com.

I am so excited to get to know Miami and Florida better, and to write and report on the people and communities who live here. Don’t hesitate to reach out!

Thanks to a matching grant from Report for America, the Miami Herald and el Nuevo Herald has been able to add a new reporter to the team. But we need reader support to raise $30,000 in matching funds to make this work possible. Individuals, organizations and businesses can make a tax-deductible donation directly to Report for America. All of the money goes directly to pay the salary of this dedicated staff member.